54-year-old Herbert Meyers Jr. was murdered last week. His son was arrested Friday.

Advocate photo by VERONICA DOMINACH --Herbert Meyers III, 35, speaks with investigators at the scene of the homicide of his father Herbert Meyers Jr. at the 2400 block of Oriole Street in New Orleans, La. Monday, March 23, 2015. The younger Meyers was arrested for the murder of his father today in Metairie.

Advocate photo by VERONICA DOMINACH --Herbert Meyers III, 35, speaks with investigators at the scene of the homicide of his father Herbert Meyers Jr. at the 2400 block of Oriole Street in New Orleans, La. Monday, March 23, 2015. The younger Meyers was arrested for the murder of his father today in Metairie.

Son of man killed inside his New Orleans home is arrested in father’s slaying

54-year-old Herbert Meyers Jr. was murdered last week. His son was arrested Friday.

Advocate photo by VERONICA DOMINACH --Herbert Meyers III, 35, speaks with investigators at the scene of the homicide of his father Herbert Meyers Jr. at the 2400 block of Oriole Street in New Orleans, La. Monday, March 23, 2015. The younger Meyers was arrested for the murder of his father today in Metairie.

Advocate photo by VERONICA DOMINACH --Herbert Meyers III, 35, speaks with investigators at the scene of the homicide of his father Herbert Meyers Jr. at the 2400 block of Oriole Street in New Orleans, La. Monday, March 23, 2015. The younger Meyers was arrested for the murder of his father today in Metairie.

As Herbert Meyers III told it, he had just returned to his father’s house near the New Orleans lakefront on Sunday night after running a quick errand when he discovered his dad, Herbert Meyers Jr., had been killed in a home invasion.

But authorities apparently did not believe his story. Instead, they arrested the 35-year-old on Friday in his father’s slaying.

New Orleans police found the elder Meyers, 54, dead from multiple gunshot wounds about 10:50 p.m. Sunday at his home in the 2400 block of Oriole Street. His son had called them, saying he had discovered his father’s body amid a burglary in progress.

In an interview with The New Orleans Advocate on Monday, the younger Meyers said he had been with his father Sunday evening but left him to buy supplies for a jazz club the two owned in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Meyers III said he drove to a store but changed his mind about going in because he’s “wishy-washy.” When he came back, he said, he realized his father had been gunned down and heard frantic whispers nearby.

He said he ran to his car, grabbed an AK-47 he kept there because he is “a gun enthusiast” and went back into the home.

When he entered the living room, he said, he opened fire on two men, at least one of whom he said also was wielding an AK-47.

Meyers III claimed he recognized one of the men as someone his father had done business with in a construction job, but the men slipped out a back door.

He said his father’s bedroom had been ransacked, with drawers opened and his safe broken into.

At a news conference Monday, Sgt. Nicholas Gernon, the head of the New Orleans Police Department’s Homicide Section, would not confirm whether more than one gun had been fired in the home on Sunday night.

He said ballistics testing in the case was pending.

Whatever the case, Gernon announced Friday afternoon that Meyers III had been arrested in Metairie by the U.S. Marshals Service. No other information was immediately available.

Murder convictions in Louisiana carry mandatory life imprisonment.

The club belonging to the elder Meyers and his son is the 13th Street Jazz Bistro in downtown Gulfport. A phone call to the club Friday afternoon was not answered.

Meyers’ funeral Mass is set for 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church in New Orleans.